Mexico’s Murder Woes

Posted on Aug 22, 2009

Mexico’s murder rate is bad, but it’s not 1990s bad. In a weird use of statistics on homicide rates, Mexico’s Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora argues that despite the ongoing drug war that has killed 11,000 and deaths being tallied by one newspaper in an “Execute-o-meter,” the country is still better off than it was last decade.

Los Angeles Times:

This just in: Mexico may not be as violent as everyone thinks.

Yes, a drug war has killed more than 11,000 people since the end of 2006. Severed heads and heaps of bodies turn up as traffickers battle Mexican forces and one another. Some days, the nationwide toll from drug-related slayings tops 30. (One Mexican newspaper website tallies the carnage on its “Execute-o-meter.”)

Looked at another way, though, Mexico isn’t as deadly as it used to be.

That’s the point the nation’s attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, was pushing this week when he cited figures showing that Mexico’s overall homicide rate has fallen since the 1990s.